Toasting-oven.



PATENTED MAR. 14, 1905.

R. GRACE. TOASTING OVEN. APPLICATION FILED JULY 9, 1902.

L T E B H S S T E E H S 2 fivwutor:

R. GRACE.

PATENTED MAR. 14, 1905.

TOASTING OVEN.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 9, 1902.

2 SHEETSSHBET 2.

ullllownfy g UNITED STATES Patented March 14, 1905.

PATENT OFFICE.

RALPH GRACE, OF BATTLECREEK, MICHIGAN, ASSIGNOR TO SIMON A. KOHN, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

TOASTING-OVEN.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Lette iIs Patent No. 784,854, dated March 14, 1905.

Application filed July 9, 1902. Serial No. 114,864.

1'0 all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that l, RALPH GRACE, of Battlecreek, in the county of Calhoun and State of Michigan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Toasting-Ovens; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

This invention relates to improvements in toasting and broiling devices and apparatus, and refers to an apparatus designed for toasting cereals and like food products, and also to a novel heating device adapted to be employed as the toaster in the apparatus shown and also employed generally for toasting or broiling food products.

Inthe drawings, Figure 1 is a longitudinal section taken through a toasting-oven made in accordance with my invention. Fig. 2 is a transverse section taken on line 2 2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a side elevation of. one end of the oven. Fig. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary vertical section of one of the toasters, taken on line 4 4 of Fig. 1. Fig. 5 is a fragmentary bottom plan view of one of the lower toasters, taken on line 5 5 of Fig. 1.

In said drawings, A designates in ageneral way the elongated outer casing or inclosure of a toasting-oven, which may be made of heavy sheet metal of a gage to give rigidity thereto and supported on a skeleton frame consisting of horizontal and vertical bars a a in the manner shown. The oven is supported on vertical legs or standards A, suitably connected with the skeleton frame of the oven. Said .easing preferably surrounds and incloses all of brackets a ing and is provided with a pulley B. through which power is applied to rotate said rollers through the medium of a belt B and to impart therethrough movement to the belt. The belt is of a foraminated nature, being preferably made of woven wire. Said pairs of rollers B B and B B", respectively, are located at each end of the oven, one over the other, and the upper and lower laps of the belt (upon the former of which the material to be toasted is carried) travel through the oven in horizontal planes. The shafts of one of the pairs of'rollers (the rollers B, as herein shown) are mounted in horizontally-movable blocks 6 Fig. 3, in the bearings a, whereby the rollers B may be moved toward and from the rollers B to maintain the belt in proper tension. The movement of said bearing-blocks b are controlled by screwshafts 6 which are connected with the boxes and have screw-threaded engagement with the The upper lap of the belt B is supported intermediate the pulleys B B by means of horizontal rollers B which extend transversely through the oven beneath the upper lap of the belt and are rotatively mounted in bearings B, Fig. 3. outside of the oven and attached to the vertical members a of the frame. The material is fed to the rear end of the upper lap of the belt through the medium of a chute C, Fig. 1, communicating with a hopper G, to which the cereal to be toasted is delivered, and said chute is provided with a valve or gate by which the feed of the cereal to the belt is regulated. The toasted material is discharged from the belt at the front end of the oven through the medium of an inclined discharge-spout I), which is located with its inner end closely adjacent to the vertical portion of the belt near the lower roller B, and said chute extends outside of the casing, so as to deliver the toasted material to the exterior thereof.

E E designate a plurality of toasters or heaters located above the upper lap of the carrier-belt B, and E E a plurality of similar toasters or heaters located between theupper and lower laps of said belt. The heat of the upper and lower toasters isdirected toward the upper and lower sides of the upper lap of the belt, and said toasters are made of I brackets F attached to the side wall of'the terial on the belt.

oven in the manner shown in Fig. 3. Valves f are located between the supply and branch pipes to control the supply of gas to the toasters: Said flexible pipes F are coated with asbestos or like heat-insulating material. 'In lieu of said chamber a continuous coil of burner-pipes may be provided, if desired.

Each gas-chamber e is provided with a plurality of gas jets or burners e, directed toward the upper lap of the belt. Located in front of the gas-burners of each toaster'to wit, below the burners above the belt and above the burners below the beltis a foraminated heat-radiating member E, herein shown as made of fine wire gauze or screen, which is attached at its outer margin to a frame 6 connected with the gas-chamber e in any suitable manner. It is intended. that the flames from the burner-jetse shall not pass through the said screen, but shall heat the screen to a high temperature, theeheat being thrown out or radiated from the said screens 'to the ma- In this manner direct contact of the flames with the material being toasted is avoided, and consequent burning thereof is prevented.

The upper toasters E are supported through the medium of vertical bars G G, which extend upwardly through the top wall of the oven-casing and are attached at their lower ends to divergent supports G G, (preferably of a flexible nature, such as chains.) Said supports G- G are connected with the toasters at their lower ends between the sides and centers thereof,as shown in Fig. 2, whereby said toasters are held in balance and are loosely connected with the centrally-located bars G G.

The lower toasters are supported on the up- -per ends of vertical bars H, which extend upwardly through the lower wall of the ovencasing. The bars H for each toaster are 10-.

cated one on each side of the lower lap of the belt and are connected with diagonally opposite corners of the toasters. As herein shown,

with transverse shafts H, each of which is rigid with one of the adjacent bars H. I Said shafts H extend from one end of the toaster to the other and are loosely mounted in bearings IL, attached to the under side of the toaster, thereby providing a wide bearing for each of the shafts on its associated toaster in a manner to hold the toaster horizontal. Said toasters E E are adapted to be moved toward and from the upper lap of the belt, as indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 1 at the right-hand side of said figure,and said toasters are also adapted to be tilted to change the angles thereof with respect to the horizontal plane of the belt, as indicated in the'left-hand side of Fig. l in dotted lines. For these purposes the said bars Grand H are provided on their margins with teeth g and it, constituting racks which are adapted for engagement with gear-wheels I I, which are aflixed to horizontal shafts I 1 located above and below the oven-casing, respectively. The gear-wheels '1 of the upper shafts are located centrally of their shafts to engage the centrallylocated supporting-bars G of the upper toasters, while the gear-wheels I of the lower shafts are located near the ends of their shafts to engage the bars H, which are located at the sides of the toasters. Said upper shafts are mounted in. bearings t', attached to the upper frame members of the oven at the top corners thereof, while the lower shafts engage similar bearings i, attached to the lower frame members a. Said racks also engage at the sides thereof remote from the gear-wheels vertical guides 2' i adapted to hold the racks in mesh with the gear -wheels. The said shafts are provided outside of their bearings with cranks a" 2'", whereby the same may be rotated to raise or lower the toasters, and said shafts are provided near said cranks with ratchet-wheels 71", adapted for engagement by clicksz', pivoted on the bearingsz'vl at the outer end of said shaft, whereby said toasters may be locked in any desired vertical position. The shafts i i of each pair controlling the movement of one toaster are independently movable with respect to each other, so that when it is desired to change the angle of the toaster with respect to the horizontal plane of the belt one of said rack-bars is moved upwardly or downwardly farther than the other, as indicated in dotted lines at the lefthand side of Fig 1, whereby the end of the toaster to which said elevated or lowered rack bar is attached is raised or lowered with respect to the opposite end thereof. The rackbars may and will desirably be in practice provided with graduation-marks, which may be read from the upper and lower ends of the guides c' i whereby the positions of the toasters with respect to the belt may be readily determined from the exterior of the oven.

The oven is provided at one end thereof with a flue or chimney A through which the heated gases may escape from said oven. The oven is also provided'at one or more points with airinlet openings A Fig. 1, controlled by dampers, whereby air may be supplied to the interior of the furnace to support combustion of the gas heating the toasters. The side walls of the oven are also pro- IOO " belt with windows A, which are closed with glass or other transparent material and through which the operation of thetoasters may be observed. Said oven in the practical construction thereof will also be provided with oven-doors, (not shown,) whereby access may be afforded to the interior of the oven for the purpose of cleaning or repairing the interior parts thereof.

The belt may be made to travel at as slow or high rate of speed as desired, increasing the speed of the driving mechanism. Moreover, by reason of the adjustment of the 'toasters with respect to the upper lap of the belt, whereby said toasters may be moved toward and from the belt or adjusted at an angle thereto, I am enabledto variously apply the heat of the toasters in different parts of the travel of the belt through the oven, and thereby accurately regulate the amount of heat directed upon the cereal from any one of the toasters. For instance, it may be desirable in toasting certain cereals to apply a relatively .low heat to the incoming cereal and to gradually increase the heat asthe cereal passes through the furnace. This I am enabled to accomplish by'moving the forward toaster or toasters farther from the belt than the rear toaster or toasters, thereby gradually decreasing the distance between the succeeding toasters and the belt as the material is carried forwardly through the oven. Moreover, certain kinds of cereals require less heat to toast the same than others, and in this event all of said toasters may be removed a distance away from the belt suitable to such cereal. This result may be readily accomplished by the mechanism provided therefor. If desired, but one set of heaters may be employed, and said set may be located either above or below the upper lap of the belt. I prefer to employ the two sets, as herein shown, as I am thereby enabled to more uniformly apply the heat to the material being toasted. Moreover, so far'as the broader aspect of my invention is concerned I may apply a single toastermade of a size to correspond with the conditions.

The heating devices E E have been herein designated as ftoasters, and in the construction shown are properly so designated. It

will be observed that heating devices made as described, may be employed in other relations for toasting, broiling, or othcrwisecooking food productsas, for instance, the heat- ,ers may be used for broiling meats.

An important feature of the construction of the heating device is the provision of the foraminated radiating element located in front of the burners of each device. Said foraminated radiating element prevents -the flames of the burners impinging directly upon the material being toasted or otherwise cooked and prevents scorching or irregular cooking or toasting of the food product. As before stated, the flames heat the forarninated element to a high temperature, and the heat is diffused or radiated thereby on all. parts of the food product alike, whereby said product is uniformly toasted or broiled. In the use of the heating devices for broiling meats the uniform heating of the surface of the meat serves to produce on the surface of the meat early in the broiling process a scaling crust which prevents the escape of the nutrition juices of the meat. directly upon the meat being broiled, the heating effect is irregular, and as a consequence the meat is heated sufliciently to cause the juices to flow before the surface scaling of the meat is effected. This feature of the construction of the heaters is also important when applied as toasters, as it prevents irregular toasting of the food product being treated.

It is obvious that changes may be made in the structural details of the illustrated embodiment of the invention without departing from the spirit of my invention, and I do not wish to be limited to such details except as hereinafter made the subject of specific claims.

I claim as my invention" 1. A toasting-oven comprising an endless, traveling belt upon the upper lap of which the material to be toasted is carried through the oven, a flat, horizontal toaster arranged above and closely adjacent to said upper lap of the belt and having'a plurality of burners which direct their flames toward said belt, a flameretaining, heat-radiating,foraminated sheet located between the burners of said toaster and the belt, and means for supplying a burning fuel to said toaster.

2. A toasting-oven comprising an endless, traveling foraminated belt upon the upper lap of which the material to be toasted iscarried through the oven, flat, horizontal, gas-heated toasters arranged above and below and closely adjacent to the upper lap of said belt and provided with burners which direct their flames toward said upper lap of the belt, flame-retaining, heat-radiating, foraminated sheets 10- cated between the burners of said toasters and the belt, and means for supplying a burning gas to said toasters.

3. A toasting-oven comprising an endless, traveling belt upon the upper lap of which the material to be toasted is carried through the oven, a flat, horizontal toaster arranged above and 'closely' adjacent to said upper lap of the belt and having a plurality of burners which direct their-flames toward said belt, a flameretaining, heat-radiating, foraminated sheet If the flames impinge and closely adjacent said upper lap of the traveling belt upon the upper lap of which the ma rial to be toasted is carried through the oven, a plurality of flat, horizontal, gas-heated toasters arranged above and closely adjacent to said upper lap of the belt and provided with burners which direct their flames toward said upper lap of the belt, means for separately moving saidtoasters toward and away from the belt, and means for supplying a burning gas to said toasters.

6'. A toasting-oven provided with an endless, traveling, foraminated belt, upon the upper lap of which the material to be toasted is carried through the oven, a plurality of toasters arranged above and below said upper lap of the belt, means for separately raising and lowering said toasters with respect to the belt, and means for separately tilting the toasters golvary the angles thereof with respect to the 7. A toasting-oven provided with an endless, traveling belt upon the upper lap of which the material to be toasted is carried through the oven, a toaster arranged to direct the heat thereof upon the material carried on the belt and means for moving the toaster toward and away from the belt comprising rack-bars connected at their inner ends with the toaster, rotative shafts provided with gear-pinions which mesh with the rack-bars, and means for locking said shafts from rotation.

8. A toastingoven provided with an endless, traveling, horizontal belt upon the upper lap of which the material to be toasted is carried through the oven, a toaster for heating the material on said belt, and means for tilting the toaster to vary the angle thereof with respect to the belt.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as myinvention l afiix my signature, in presence of two witnesses, this 24th day of June, A. D.

RALPH GRACE. Witnesses:

CARL H. CRAWFORD, GERTRUDE Baron. 

